Many processes, as well as apparatus, have been devised in order to selectively remove ore constituents from a crude mass (beneficiation) or, in the alternative, remove unwanted inclusions from a particular substance. Processes employed to do such comprise various chemical, mechanical and electrical methods, including combinations of all three. Regardless of the type employed, generally a high energy input to the separation process is required. In processes involving the use of electrical energy to remove unwanted inclusions or impurities, various apparatus and electrical spectra have been employed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,056,368 issued to Rozmus in 1977 discloses an apparatus and method for cleaning contaminated particulate material such as gas contaminated particulate material through the use of electrical field charges (electrostatic displacement). Significantly, Rozmus teaches a series of vacuum chambers surrounded by a series of external electrodes. Rozmus applies first an alternating current and, secondly, a direct current charge to the electrodes. Particulate matter is injected into the system and conducted through a series of conduits (chambers) by gravity and while subjected to vacuum conditions. Because of the nature of an electrostatic field, that is, the exertion of an undiminished force through a non-conducting material, the electrodes are positioned outside of the series conduit-vacuum chamber. The Rozmus process therefore entails deflection of charged particles that pass through the field. The vacuum system is intended to draw off only inert gases which have been ionized by contact or flow through the electrostatic fields. The Rozmus process and apparatus would not be efficacious where the beneficiation process was to remove, selectively, electric power-absorbing matter from a non-conductive material, say quartz. More importantly, since Rozmus contemplates the removal of contaminants comprising essentially gas molecules, he has devised a system and process which essentially avoids extremes of heat. By contrast, and to serve the purposes of the instant inventor, it is necessary to employ high heat in order to vaporize the foreign inclusions found in non-metallic minerals.
Poetzschke, in 1986, was issued U.S. Pat. No. 4,572,735 for a PROCESS FOR SORTING METAL PARTICLES. The relevance of this teaching to the instant invention was that Poetzschke, his detailed means and the teaching of a method for identifying and sorting metal particles dependent on their chemical composition, by use of the melting point and/or the melting temperature range of the selective Particles. Essentially, Poetzschke teaches the existence of a specific melting point, or points at which a change of state occurs, for a particular inclusion that is responsive to a particular energy input, notably that of a 400 Watt CO.sub.2 laser. The instant inventor, extrapolating from the teachings of Poetzschke, determined that for his particular needs an "antenna" characteristic exhibited by conductive materials having definitive crystal structures would provide the physical parameters necessary to calculate the proper amount of energy required to vaporize a specific or particular inclusion in non-conducting material such as quartz.
It is known to those versed in the art that crystals or particles of conductive materials act to varying degrees as antennae and to varying degrees, depending upon wave length, exhibit resonant frequencies when introduced to an electromotive field. Given a variety of particulate inclusions, those crystalline inclusions being by way of physical length tuned to the frequency of the RF or electromotive field will absorb a disproportionately greater share of energy than the "non-tuned" inclusions. Thus, they will melt and vaporize sooner than the non-tuned inclusions.
Notwithstanding the immediately foregoing knowledge, it does not appear from an exhaustive study of the extant patent art that anyone has succeeded in developing the process and apparatus of the hereinafter disclosed invention. Indeed, Rozmus, in collaboration with Rozmus Jr. years later patented a vacuum chamber assembly which is to be used for degassing particulate material (U.S. Pat. No. 4,388,088) and appears to have concentrated more heavily on physical means for separation rather than electronic; although electronic means are suggested in the later patent.